Taylor Paur Wins WSOP Event#18 After Bizarre Heads-up Battle

Top US online poker pro Taylor Paur has just won the WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold’em (Event #18), after overcoming a field of 2,071 players over three days to capture a prestigious gold bracelet, as well as the $340,260 first place prize.
Following his victory at the 44th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Taylor Paur commented: “It’s amazing, as a poker player it’s a dream. It’s hard to really live in the moment a lot but I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s hard to appreciate right now as big of a moment as it is.”
In addition to his WSOP bracelet, Taylor Paur now boasts $1,212,254 in live earnings to go with the $4,000,607 he has earned online playing under the screen name ‘Taypaur.’
The WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event attracted a good mix of amateurs and pros alike to create a prize pool worth $1,863,900. Amongst the notable names cashing in at the tournament was Mike Sexton in 186th ($1,901), Amanda Musumeci in 182nd ($1,901), Jeremy Ausmus in 139th ($2,087), David Williams in 120th ($2,320), Andy Bloch in 101st ($2,320), Matt Affleck in 66th ($4,016), and Shannon Shorr in 23rd ($10,046).
Phil Ivey then narrowly missed out on a final table appearance after he was reduced to just 6bb before being eliminated in 14th place ($15,544) holding A-4 to Taylor Paur’s pocket sevens.
At the final table of nine, Taylor Paur (A-A) subsequently scored a double-elimination over Kyle Cartwright (Q-Q) in 9th and Ryan Austin (J-J) in 8th, after the board rolled out K-K-A-8-2. Taylor Paur (A-A) then did likewise to DJ MacKinnon (K-K) in 5th ($77,491), Kevin Barlow in 4th ($106,027), and Tai Nguyen in 3rd ($147,220), before going heads-up against Roy Weiss.
According to The Hendon Mob database, Roy Weiss had never cashed in at a live tournament before, and coming back from a dinner break Weiss proceeded to move all in preflop every single hand bar one, much to the frustration of Paur. Eventually, however, Paur (A-5) overcame Weiss (K-8) to claim the bracelet. Commenting later on his heads-up battle, Paur had plenty to say and explained:
“I’ve never seen anything like it and I don’t imagine anyone has ever gone all in every hand while heads-up for a bracelet. I even said walking back from dinner that someone would tell him to move all in every single hand and I couldn’t actually believe anyone would do it. I honestly think he disrespected the game, it’s not poker. It’s not everyday that you get to play heads-up for a bracelet. I’m trying to play for a bracelet not flip coins for a bracelet. I feel it was disrespectful to everyone else that played in the event. They were trying to win, not to see who can get the luckiest.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Taylor Paur – $340,260
2 Roy Weiss – $211,794
3 Tai Nguyen – $147,220
4 Kevin Barlow – $106,027
5 DJ MacKinnon – $77,491
6 Phillip Hui – $57,324
7 Daniel Idema – $42,962
8 Ryan Austin – $32,608
9 Kyle Cartwright – $25,041